Five Save the Children employees working in the detention centre for families on Nauru were suspended during a crackdown on employees seen to be encouraging or engaging asylum seekers who protest peacefully.

Guardian Australia has been told by a number of sources on Nauru that the five employees, one teacher working with children, two recreation staff, and two case managers were suspended last week following requests from the immigration department.

One was suspended after security guards observed her giving a “thumbs up” to a group of women protesting in the family camp, and another two were suspended after they were seen watching the protests from a distance.

Nauru contractors told Guardian Australia that staff are being instructed not to engage with any asylum seekers taking part in the protests.

Guardian Australia understands that the allegations were sent by security company Wilson to Canberra where the department requested the suspensions. All allegations were eventually dropped this week, but some of those suspended have already left the island.

Peaceful protests on Nauru began last Tuesday. Guardian Australia has been told by eyewitness sources that three Somali women attempted self-harm and suicide last Friday as part of the protests, one woman attempted to swallow a razor blade, and another attempted to jump from a height.

A spokesperson for the immigration minister, Scott Morrison, said: “A number of staff employed by Save the Children Australia at the Nauru offshore processing pentre were removed from frontline services to transferees, pending a review of an incident.

“The review has been completed and the staff have resumed normal duties.”

On Saturday Guardian Australia revealed that only 50% of requests and complaints on Nauru were resolved by staff. According to information from a leaked database only 12% of requests for clothing were met by staff. Asylum seekers also regularly complained about vermin in their accommodation.

At the national inquiry into children in immigration detention last week former Save the Children worker Kirsty Diallo said asylum seeker children had begged her for books and clothing when she worked on Nauru.

She described one case of a woman so desperate for clothing that she stitched her child a dress from a mosquito net.